Monday, December 20, 2010

Live Power Show #12


Scan00000010055, originally uploaded by bucklesw1.

Posted by Buckles at 12/20/2010 05:34:00 AM

17 comments:

Chic Silber said...

Any guesses on who was the 1st to

sport the white jodphurs & black

boots when presenting cats & how

many followed in that tradition

Same question for the standard

bentwood chair & blank gun

I can certainly think of several

20 December, 2010 16:38
Anonymous said...

Chic,
Do you suppose that's his cell phone hooked to his belt? I don't remember Clyde having one, of course, back then none of us had them.
Bob Kitto

20 December, 2010 17:11
Ole Whitey said...

Chic: As you know, once something gets in print (or nowadays on the net), it is impossible to go back and undo any possible damage.

There is a statement in Beatty's Wikipedia entry that there is "some evidence" that Beatty was the first "tamer" to use the chair. They cite that recognized scholarly work called "How Does Aspirin Find a Headache?" as their source.

This was all new to me and I have read a few things about Beatty over the years, so I got the book and looked it up. What the book says is, "As far as we could ascertain," Beatty introduced the chair. They gave no source for their conjecture but they did add that Beatty had died "of a car accident," So you see how reliable this source is.

In the meantime innumerable write-ups on Beatty have picked up on this and now many readers believe it to be gospel. I still don't know if it's true or not but I never heard it mentioned until I saw the Wikipedia entry just a few years ago.

Of course Wikipedia also says the Beatty show "merged with Cole Bros" to form Beatty-Cole, which as we know is not how that title came about at all.

20 December, 2010 20:15
Chic Silber said...

Don't be so silly Bob can't you

tell a Blackberry from a cel phone

& Whitey I guess as we ol geezers

die off it will be up to others to

keep rewriting the circus gospel

for generations yet to come

I wonder just how much of what

we've been told is really so

Not even sure anymore if what

I actually witnessed is true

After a while it seems to blur

20 December, 2010 22:50
Anonymous said...

I find it quite interesting that not much fact has been written down by reliable witnesses concerning the more everday side of life of Clyde Beatty.
Was he generous? Tight? Vegetarian? Steak lover?
Easy to provoke a laugh from or always preoccupied with business?
The one sided and constant promo of him that was written serves no one now. Even his book gives no insight into the man. The temperment of the man would have been much more informational than that of his toughest cat.
Of the countless photos I have saved of him since I first saw him hold court in the arena I still don't know the man. Dennis J. Younger

21 December, 2010 03:50
Wade G. Burck said...

Dennis,
Even if that were to happen, to paraphrase Chic, "I wonder just how much of what we've would hear would be really so." Each person telling would have a different impression. Maybe it is better just letting him be what we want him to be, in our own Private Idaho.
Wade Burck

21 December, 2010 06:53
Frank Ferrante said...

Good point, Wade. One of the greatest disappointments that we endure is when we discover the 'other side' of our heros. Still, there is something in all of us that 'wants to know.'

I just read something that said that Beatty was in DeMille's Greatest Show On Earth. I don't remember ever seeing him in the film. Someone help me out here. ~frank

21 December, 2010 09:03
Frank Ferrante said...

I just did a quick check on IMDB.com, which has the full cast listing. I did not find Clyde Beatty listed, but I did find Mabel Stark listed as one of the spectators, (uncredited). I didn't see her in the film, either. But we all saw Bing Crosby & Bob Hope as spectators eating popcorn, (uncredited.)... so who knows? ~frank

21 December, 2010 09:12
Chic Silber said...

Amen Wade

21 December, 2010 09:32
Roger Smith said...

DENNIS: When I was a crippled kid of 4, I was carried into the Big Top of the Beatty show, not knowing
anything of what I was seeing. A man in white ran toward me, tossed aside a white helmet, and inside with the first wild animals I'd seen, he provided my epiphany. He was all I remembered of the circus, except the elephants. I hero-worshipped him in his movies and three times a week on his radio show. When I wrote for the opening he mentioned in an obscure item in AB, I was almost overwhelmed that he wrote in return. I joined out in Philadelpnia in May, 1964. It would have been in DeLand, but I needed two months to heal up from my first going-over by a lion. It is stated here, correctly, that when we really see our heroes up close, there can be elements about them that let us down. I can say this--never with Mr. Beatty. He was entirely human, and you gave him space for an hour after the act, but even then he maintained a level of humanity. To answer a few questions, he loved soup and hamburgers (slice of raw onion, plain bun, not toasted), in quaint roadside diners. He never passed up a catfish dinner. He loved Jane's enchiladas. His drinking has been explored here, and no one ever saw him drunk. He enjoyed V.O. and Michelob, and drank like a man. He never smoked. Many grande artistes snubbed the workingmen. Not this man--he'd stand and pass the time of day about the ball game or the Friday night fights with the greenest canvas boy or prop hand. He was intense in schooling me, but generous and thorough, and told me many stories of how his early beginnings coincided with mine. He always tipped me beyond the $13.10 a week handed out by Mr. Forestall. He had a smile and a handshake for all who wanted to meet him, and he posed with them for photos. He was great friends with Grace and Ranier, John Wayne, Mickey Spillane, Pat O'Brien, Ernest Hemingway, and studio heads like Carl Laemmle, yet he never dropped a name. He was a close and good father to Clyde, Jr., and was overjoyed when his son hit a home run. When he knew he was dying, the only mention he made of it was needing to get over an operation and get the old pep back. Jane wanted to announce his retirement, but he insisted, "I'll never quit." He didn't. The day finally came he couldn't work, nor even stand. Even at the last hospital, he arose from a 12-day coma and demanded to be taken home. He died later that day, but never because he quit. For those who never got around the man, I want to say, my God, I wish you could have known him.

23 December, 2010 05:09
Anonymous said...

You know the original idea behind the use of Jodphurs don't you?
Notice all the extra material in the behind? In case the trainer gets in a very bad situation the jodphurs can contain what you couldn't. DJY

23 December, 2010 06:53
Anonymous said...

Thanks Roger. Those words are the only ones I have ever read that speak of the man not the P.R. man's dream. Dennis

23 December, 2010 09:16
Bob Good said...

My family knew Clyde quite well. We visited him in his trailer,he stayed at our house, and we treated him like any other friend. Roger, Dave, and a few others know that we had a good grasp of his personality. He was certainly an outgoing guy, who loved to laugh. He loved sports and he was always kidding me about Sonny Liston who he knew I thought was great.

My Dad must have known him for over forty years. As far as the "Good" Guys were concerned he was really a great individual.

My fondest memories are holding his blue bathrobe and hearing his hearty laugh. Thanks to all of you for keeping him in your memory.

Bob Good

23 December, 2010 17:54
Wade G. Burck said...

Dennis,
Those are a PR man's dream words!!! I have to honestly say, I have never heard a "bad" word spoken about Clyde in all the years I have been involved with the circus, and that included trainers from the old day's like Lou Regan and others. The worst they could come up with was his act never had any tricks, which given the type of act it was, didn't need tricks, is the the way I look at it. Sometimes someone would get "catty" and claim that someone did the training for him, but that has been both verified and unverified, so who knows. He did leave an impact in his era that is for sure.
Wade

23 December, 2010 18:00
Anonymous said...

The words said about CB in this thread have convinced me that he was well worth knowing.
No tricks in his act you say? As I was only about 10 at the time I don't remember a thing about the act I saw. Just a man among cats. A man who provoked an interest in a kid that has lasted into approaching decrepitude. Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night. DJY

23 December, 2010 21:19
Chic Silber said...

"Your attention now to the steel

bound arena" are words that will

ring in my ears as long as I live

I 1st heard them in early spring

of 61 when I had the opportunity

to operate a frontlight in the

new Long Island Arena in Commack

I had absolutely no knowledge of

the circus industry but found it

as fascinating as the theater

I was an apprentice stagehand at

that time & I have fairly evenly

split my life's work between the

two ever since then

"The one and only Clyde Beatty"

What great memories I cherish

23 December, 2010 23:07
Anonymous said...

Directing your attention to the steel arena in the center of the big top.
Witness now, the meeting of man and beast. With Royal Bengal tigers and wild nubian lions. Trained and presented by __________. DJY

24 December, 2010 08:02

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